Practical Approaches to Sand Management
Andrew Acock Tom ORourke Daniel Shirmboh Aberdeen, Scotland
Joe Alex ander Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Greg Andersen Unocal Su gar Land, Tex as, USA
Toshinobu Kaneko Adi Venkitaraman Hou ston, Tex as
Jorge Ló pez -de-Cá rdenas Rosharon, Tex as
Masatoshi Nishi Islamabad, Pakistan
Masaaki Numasawa Katsuhei Yoshioka Japan Petroleu m Ex ploration Company , Ltd. (JAPEX) Toky o, Japan
Alistair Roy Allan Wilson BP
Aberdeen, Scotland
Allan Twy nam BP
Sunbury , England
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Mark Alden, Houston, Texas, USA; Andrew Baker, Quito, Ecuador; Mario Ardila, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; John Cook and Juliane Heiland, Cambridge, England; John Fuller, Gatwick, England; Anwar Husen, Cairo, Egypt; Andy Martin, Aberdeen, Scotland; and Juan Carlos Palacio, Stavanger, Norway. Thanks also to BP and their partners, Eni UK Limited, Noex UK Limited, Shell and ExxonMobil, for the release of the Mirren eld example.
CHFR (Cased Hole Formation Resistivity), ClearPAC, CNL (Compensated Neutron Log), DataFRAC, DSI (Dipole Shear Sonic Imager), ECLIPSE, FMI (Fullbore Formation MicroImager), GVR (geoVISION resistivity sub), InterACT, LiteCRETE, MDT (Modular Formation Dynamics Tester), MudSOLV, OBMI (Oil-Base MicroImager), OrientXact, ProCADE, ProFIT, PropNET, PURE (Perforating for Ultimate Reservoir Exploitation), QUANTUM, RockSolid, RST (Reservoir Saturation Tool), SPAN (Schlumberger perforation analysis), STIMPAC, TDT (Thermal Decay Time), USI (UltraSonic Imager) and WellWatcher are marks of Schlumberger. AllPAC is a mark of ExxonMobil and is licensed to Schlumberger.
Failure at the sand-grain scale during hydro- carbon exploitation can cause wellbore-stability problems, casing collapse, reduced production, and in extreme cases, the loss of a wellbore.1 Loose sand grains are mobilized at certain pres- sure-drawdown levels, fluid velocities and fluid viscosities; once produced into the wellbore, these particles can create havoc downstream. Produced in fast-fl owing conditions or great numbers, sand grains erode tubulars and can become stationary or migrating obstructions. The erosive capability of produced sand depends on many factors, including the amount of sand
being produced, sand-particle velocity and impact angle.2
Erosion from sand production—
sanding— damages downhole tubulars, subsea hardware, pipelines and other facilities, possibly causing catastrophic well failure and harm to personnel and to the environment.
Sand accumulations can choke off production anywhere along the flowline, reducing produc- tion revenues and costing signifi cant amounts of time and money to clean out. Remedial opera- tions on subsea wells and fi elds are particularly expensive. Produced sand that reaches produc- tion facilities must be separated from produced
Sand production is a serious problem in many oil and gas assets worldwide. It can drastically affect production rates; it can damage downhole and subsea equipment and surface facilities, increasing the risk of catastrophic failure; and it costs producers tens of billions of dollars annually . Sand management is a complicated issue that cannot be addressed by a one-siz e- ts-all approach. Instead, operators have embraced a multifaceted approach, ex ploiting the vast array of technologies and ex pertise available to manage this problem.
10
Oilfi eld Review
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76